When I studied Teaching at University, we learnt about lots of relevant and interesting subjects. Not only did we learn 'basics' like (how to teach) science, mathematics, languages and technology, we also learnt a lot of theories. At first, the theories puzzled us slightly yet after the first year or so, we started seeing the connections between all the different subjects we were studying.
"Seeing the connections" was something that happened gradually, yet our entire class of 20-30 women got there around the same time. It was a shared process of discovery in which we learnt from each other and with each other and were able to grow and change our insights together.
Seeing the connections between the different subjects we learnt about was amazing as it was 'real proof' that we were learning and developing and making progress. It also made clear to me what people meant when they used a term like "university-level thinking" - it is seeing the connections and being trained to learn something one day and then apply it in a completely unrelated setting the next day. It is a way of thinking and of seeing the world that I don't think I would have learn anywhere but at Uni.
We learnt about communication, psychology, education, developmental theories, different methods of teaching and learning and different ways of applying that which we were learning to our lives, to our studies and to our personal teaching style and methods.
I found that I wanted to write about what I was learning and wanted to share my thinking with others. Which brings me to this blog. When I started this blog in 2010, I planned to write on a daily basis, to share my thoughts and my ideas and to contribute to others' learning and education through my blog. I wanted this blog to be everything that I couldn't be in real life - outspoken, opinionated, loudly proclaiming and annoyingly in-your-face. See this blog's very first post for some more insights into my thinking four years ago. As those of you who've been with us a while will know, life intervened and this blog got put on the back burner. This when I handed over the blog to Veronica.
Now that life has returned to 'normal' Veronica's asked me to write some more posts about developmental theories and theorists, education and early childhood. I agreed - how could I not! - yet while I have started writing and researching, I'm still working on what exactly to post and how to present it. To whet your appetite, here are some of the theories and theorists I plan to write about:
Urie Bronfenbrenner, Edward De Bono, Erik Erikson,
Sigmund Freud, Abraham Maslow, Maria Montessori
Jean Piaget, Rudolf Steiner, Helen Parkhurst (Dalton)
* The founder of What Makes People Tick is back.
She'll be writing about her passions as time allows.
"Seeing the connections" was something that happened gradually, yet our entire class of 20-30 women got there around the same time. It was a shared process of discovery in which we learnt from each other and with each other and were able to grow and change our insights together.
Seeing the connections between the different subjects we learnt about was amazing as it was 'real proof' that we were learning and developing and making progress. It also made clear to me what people meant when they used a term like "university-level thinking" - it is seeing the connections and being trained to learn something one day and then apply it in a completely unrelated setting the next day. It is a way of thinking and of seeing the world that I don't think I would have learn anywhere but at Uni.
We learnt about communication, psychology, education, developmental theories, different methods of teaching and learning and different ways of applying that which we were learning to our lives, to our studies and to our personal teaching style and methods.
I found that I wanted to write about what I was learning and wanted to share my thinking with others. Which brings me to this blog. When I started this blog in 2010, I planned to write on a daily basis, to share my thoughts and my ideas and to contribute to others' learning and education through my blog. I wanted this blog to be everything that I couldn't be in real life - outspoken, opinionated, loudly proclaiming and annoyingly in-your-face. See this blog's very first post for some more insights into my thinking four years ago. As those of you who've been with us a while will know, life intervened and this blog got put on the back burner. This when I handed over the blog to Veronica.
Now that life has returned to 'normal' Veronica's asked me to write some more posts about developmental theories and theorists, education and early childhood. I agreed - how could I not! - yet while I have started writing and researching, I'm still working on what exactly to post and how to present it. To whet your appetite, here are some of the theories and theorists I plan to write about:
Urie Bronfenbrenner, Edward De Bono, Erik Erikson,
Sigmund Freud, Abraham Maslow, Maria Montessori
Jean Piaget, Rudolf Steiner, Helen Parkhurst (Dalton)
* The founder of What Makes People Tick is back.
She'll be writing about her passions as time allows.